blue ribbon winner two tam,
Laird Ben Nevis, what was sell for----"

"Yes, I expect the fam'ly hist'ry's all right," I breaks in. "I'll take
your word for it. But what do we feed him--dog biscuit?"

"No, no!" says Joe. "Not yet. Some bread wit' milk warm up in pan.
T'ree, four tam a day. Bymeby put in leetle scrap cook meat an' let him
have soup bone for chew. Mus' talk to heem all tam. He get wise quick.
You see."

"You flatter me, Joe," says I. "Nobody ever got wise from my talkin' to
'em. Might be interestin' to try it on a pup, though. So long."

And as I strolls along home with this warm, wriggly bunch of fur in the
crook of my arm I get more and more pleased with myself. As I dopes it
out I ought to make quite a hit, presenting Vee with something she's
been wantin' a long time. Almost as though I'd had it raised special
for her, and had been keepin' it secret for months. Looked like I was
due to acquire merit in the domestic circle, great gobs of it.

"Hey, Vee!" I sings out, as soon as I've opened the livin' room door.
"Come see what I've brought you."

She wasn't long coming, and I got to admit that when I displays Mr. Pup
the expected ovation don't come off. I don't get mixed up in any fond
and impetuous embrace. No. If I must tell the truth she stands there
with her mouth open starin' at me and it.

"Why--why, Torchy!" she gasps. "A puppy?"

"Right, first guess," says I. "By the way you're gawpin' at it, though,
it might be a young zebra or a baby hippopotamus. But it's just a mere
puppy. Airedale."

"Oh!" says Vee, gaspier than ever. "An--an Airedale?"

"Well?" says I. "Wasn't that the kind I've heard you boostin' all
along?"

"Ye-e-es," says she, draggy, "I--I suppose it was. And I do admire them
very much, but--well, I hadn't really thought of owning one. They--they
are such strenuous dogs, you know; and with the baby and all----"

"Say, take a look!" I breaks in. "Does this one size up like he was a
child eater? Here, heft him once." And I hands him over.

Course, it ain't five minutes before she's cuddlin' him up and cooin' to
him, and he's gnawing away at her thumb with his little puppy teeth.

"Such a dear!" says Vee. "And we could keep him out in the garage, and
have Dominick look after him, couldn't we? For they get to be such big
dogs, you know."

"Do they?" says I.

I didn't see quite how they could. Why, this one was about big enough to
go in a hat, that's all, and he was nearly